Etymology
The name of the site in ancient times is not directly attested. Udayagiri, literally the 'mountain of the sunrise', first appears in inscriptions of the eleventh century and it is now the name attached to a small village at the foot of the hill. Some historians have suggested that the iron pillar at Delhi originally stood at Udayagiri. If true, the inscription on the pillar shows that Udayagiri was called Viṣṇupadagiri, the 'hill of Viṣṇu's foot-prints' in the fifth century CE. This is supported by an inscription in one of the Udayagiri caves (Cave 19) reporting that the devotee who repaired the shrine 'bows forever to the feet of Viṣṇu'.
Read more about this topic: Udayagiri Caves
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)